Word: famagusta
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...truce. With as much ease as a surgeon wielding a scalpel across the dusky Cypriot plain, Turkish forces supported by tanks, jets and ar tillery moved out of their previously held strongpoints around Kyrenia and Nicosia and within 40 hours crossed to the other side of the island at Famagusta, neatly taking control of the northeastern third of the island in what well may be a permanent division line between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities. "Now is the time to settle the Cyprus problem once and for all, and that's what we are doing," pronounced Turkish Foreign...
...Ankara to report that Greece would not accede to Turkish demands that the island be partitioned into Greek and Turkish Cypriot zones, and that the talks were fruitless. Almost immediately Radio Ankara signaled the code words: "TYK in Force," meaning start the assault. Within minutes, Turkish jets were over Famagusta and Nicosia, making passes in Nicosia's International Airport area and dive-bombing the southwestern part of the city, where the headquarters of the Greek Cypriot National Guard, the civil police and the government radio station are clustered together. Dense clouds of black smoke billowed all over Nicosia, with...
Withering Barrage. On the ground, Turk tanks rolled out of the Turkish section of the city they had occupied since the July 20 invasion and thrust toward the suburb of Mia Milea, astride the road to Famagusta 35 miles to the east. A withering barrage of mortar and artillery fire preceded the tanks, and the native Greek forces, outgunned and outmanned, were unable to slow their advance. By early afternoon, the Turks were almost halfway to Famagusta, the island's principal port, its third largest (pop. 43,600) city and the center of its usually booming tourist industry...
Nicosia's International Airport, which handled most of the tourist travel, was heavily damaged and will be out of service for months. In addition, the airport is situated in a disputed zone which both Turkish and Greek Cypriots now claim. In Famagusta, four major hotels along the town's "Golden Mile" of hostelries-the Venus Beach, Blue Sea, Salaminia Tower and Aspelia -were nearly destroyed. The Ledra Palace in Nicosia, acknowledged queen of Cypriot hotels, is a shell-pocked shambles. A construction program under which 35 additional hotels were to be built throughout the island has been suspended...
...claimed other casualties. Monasteries and Crusader castles, the diadems among Cyprus' sightseeing attractions, were hit by gunfire or seared by shell-started flames. In Famagusta, the church of St. Nicholas where the kings of Jerusalem were once crowned was damaged. The temple of Aphrodite in Paphos was seriously pocked by mortar shells. In Bellapaise, high above the sea on the north coast, the 14th century abbey with its lemon trees is under United Nations protection...